Horror movies have developed an unhealthy habit of creating
bland characters in order to lazily ensure that the audience doesn’t turn
against the film when those characters are brutally killed. What has resulted is
a genre riddled with bad acting and one-dimensional characters, and often we
don’t complain because we were entertained enough by the scares. The same
doesn’t hold true of “Supernatural,” a television horror show. Because we are
forced to remain with the same main characters each episode, it hurts that the
weakest link in the show is their development. As much as the show tries to
quickly jam in motives and feelings into script, the only time that the show
feels truthful is when the scares begin.

Every
aspect of the visuals is incredibly impressive. From the stylized
cinematography, with shadows and wisps of light falling perfectly in place to
make certain each scene is as creepy looking as possible, to the monster
effects that are disgusting and fantastic, “Supernatural” is one of the best
looking shows on television, and even better looking in high definition. The
show is even filled with attractive actors in nearly every episode.
Unfortunately, “Supernatural” may be great to look at, but there isn’t much
else there.

After a horrific, as well as mysterious, death in the family,
Sam and Dean Winchester were raised with the skills to find and destroy
supernatural entities. Sam has moved on to law school, but he is sucked back in
one day when his brother appears to tell him that their father has gone
missing. Although this remains a large part of the overall show, there is also
a new spirit each week. The brothers travel from town to town in their spotless
black Chevelle, doing a supernatural road trip across the United States,
making “Supernatural” a sort of “X-Files” for a younger generation.

There are only so many times that the same gags and tricks
can work before they just become tiresome. Blood dripping from an unknown
source above onto a character’s face or shoulder is a favored shot in many
episodes. Still, if there is anything that the show does well, it is the
visuals. The contrast filled cinematography mixed with realistic creatures and
monsters is usually helped a great deal by beautiful scenery in each episode.
Ironically many of the show’s most hideous creatures are found in some of the
most breathtaking areas of North America.

Season eight
brings new storylines with the Leviathan threat from previous seasons resolved
and Dean’s return from Purgatory. There are vampires, demons, witches, titans,
a fairy, hellhound, golem, a found-footage episode and even a toontown episode
to make this one of the most expansive supernatural series on television. It is
still mostly just pretty people saying gobbledy-gook with fantastic imagery,
but few shows do it as well.

The Blu-ray
release of season eight includes a commentary tracks on three of the episodes,
along with three featurettes. One of the featurettes is about the making of the
found-footage episode, while the other two are about new elements in this
season. There is one about the tablets and another about the angel warrior,
Castiel. Also included are deleted scenes and a gag reel.